Sabah al-Binali's 1 minute round-up

Some straight advice about debt

Dh28.9 billion worth of 546,000 cheques bounced in the first five months of 2018, accounting for 4.2 per cent of the total number of cheques handled by the system. Photo: istockphoto.com

1 minute round-up

I see in the papers a lot of advice on dealing with debt, such as The National's debt panel. These advisers are trying to help indebted citizens and residents of the UAE.

The issue isn’t actually managing debt, it is usually that the creditor is in possession of security cheques that, if deposited and are not honoured, would lead to the imprisonment of the debtor. in neighbouring Saudi Arabia this behaviour was stopped by the ministry of commerce and industry via the simple expedient of legislating that they would revoke the commercial licence of any company that engaged in such behaviour. You have to love it when the regulators are stronger than the companies that they regulate.

I think that you can act within the law and still maintain your rightful freedom. Speak to a lawyer, they will be able to tell you the legalities.